ICRISAT Happenings 18 December 2015

ICRISAT

Happenings

18 December 2015 No. 1706

Newsletter

Photo: PM Gaur, ICRISAT ICRISAT is working on developing climate resilient lines of chickpea with resistance to extreme weather conditions such as drought, high temperature and salinity.

Research priorities identified for adaptation to climate change in Asian countries eveloping legume crops that can withstand climate extremes i.e. both scarcity and abundance of water and rising temperatures topped the research priorities identified at the International Workshop on Promotion of Pulses in Asia.

Other constraints and challenges in legume crops that were identified in the context of climate change include tackling new types of diseases, enhancing crop production with less resources (land, water, etc) and providing farmers access to superior technologies.

To address these issues, the coordinating institutions of Collaborative Legumes Asia Network (CLAN)—The World Vegetable Center (AVRDC), International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and ICRISAT shared their work plans in a separate meeting. The participating CLAN countries came up with a plan for undertaking the following: ▪▪ Development and adoption of early maturity and shortduration legume varieties ▪▪ Enhancing tolerance to extremes of water and temperature by using modern breeding approaches in addition to conventional breeding

▪▪ Promoting superior technologies (high yielding varieties) with appropriate agronomic packages in new areas (eg. rice fallows) ▪▪ Promotion of hybrid pigeonpea in select Asian countries ▪▪ Dissemination of knowledge and information on superior technologies using ICT tools ▪▪ Enhancing capacity building of National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) partners and stakeholders in collaboration with the CLAN coordinating institutions.

The workshop was organized by Seoul National University (SNU) in collaboration with CLAN coordinating institutions from 30 November to 3 December.

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Pulses are important commodity crops for ensuring livelihood of poor farmers and nutritional security in Asia.

Dr Suk-Ha Lee Seoul National University

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Research priorities identified... from page 2

Steering Committee meeting In conjunction with the workshop, the Steering Committee of CLAN also held a meeting coordinated by Dr Rajeev Varshney, Research Program Director, Grain Legumes, ICRISAT. Dr Ashutosh Sarker, Regional Coordinator and Food Legume Breeder, South Asia and China Regional Program, ICARDA, said, “We are glad to see the revival and revitalization of CLAN after a gap of more than 10 years.” Dr Ramakrishnan Nair, Vegetable Breeder-Legumes, South Asia Regional Office, AVRDC, said, “It is great to see a network of like-minded organizations to enhance the productivity of legume crops in Asia.”

Photo: SNU/ICRISAT

Participants of CLAN Steering Committee Meeting.

The meeting was attended by senior officials representing the Ministry of Agriculture of several Asian countries including Bangladesh, China, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and representatives from AVRDC, ICARDA and ICRISAT. New mandate crop: The committee approved inclusion of soybean as one of the mandate crops, the others being chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut, lentil and mung bean.

Black gram, faba bean, cowpea, grass pea and adzuki bean have been included in the ‘Tier 2’ legume crops after detailed deliberation and considering the importance of various legumes in Asian countries.

The committee adopted and approved the name of CLAN as Collaborative Legumes Asia Network after detailed discussions. Dr Tun Shwe, Director of Food Legume Section of the Department of Agricultural Research, Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, Myanmar, was elected as the Chair and Dr Zong Xuxiao, Professor and Group Leader of Food Legumes Research Group, Institute of Crop Sciences of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences was elected as the Deputy Chair. The members also discussed their support and collaboration to the CGIAR Research Program on Dryland Cereals and Legumes Agri-food Systems (DCLAS) and also capacity building activities in collaboration with APAARI.

New countries included: The committee also approved the inclusion of three new countries – Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan – on the recommendation of ICARDA. Chickpea, lentil and mung bean are important legume crops in these countries.

Plans are being made to organize a workshop on pulses in Myanmar or China in view of 2016 being declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Pulses. CLAN is co-facilitated by ICRISAT, ICARDA and AVRDC with the support of APAARI.

New publication The effectiveness and complementarity of field days and small seed packs (SSPs) in delivering Dryland Cereal technologies: a survey of field day participants and agro-vets in Singida and Iramba districts of central Tanzania Authors: Audi P, Sakwera L, Ziwa R, Letayo E, Ojulong H and Manyasa E. Published: 2015. Working Paper Series No 61. ICRISAT Research Program Markets, Institutions and Policies.

Patancheru 502 324, Telangana, India: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. 40 pp.

Abstract: This paper is about the result of a survey done in the 2014-2015 cropping season of field day participants and agro-vets who were facilitated to market Small Seed Packs (SSPs) and Small Fertilizer Packs (SFPs) in Singida and Iramba districts of Tanzania. The objective of the survey was to determine whether there was any correlation

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between awareness creation and preferences reported during field days and the demand for technological inputs from the agro-vets. The results showed a strong complementarity between the dissemination of information on improved technologies during field days and the retailing of SSPs and SFPs in agro-vets. The field days help in creating awareness about the benefits and attributes of available improved sorghum and finger millet varieties and associated agronomic recommendations; while retailing of the SSPs and SFPs by the agro-vets not only helps promote the demand for improved technological inputs but also enhances their accessibility as SSPs and SFPs are more affordable to resource poor farmers. Therefore, having field days for awareness creation without improving accessibility of technological inputs through sale of SSPs and SFPs or vice versa is futile and does not lead to enhanced experimentation and adoption of improved technologies by target farmers. http://oar.icrisat.org/9188/

COP21: ICRISAT in international media Will a radical farming shift save drought-stricken Zimbabwe? A call for climate-smart action This article first appeared in the Thomson Reuters Foundation website, 14 December Zimbabwe’s slow recovery from years of economic depression has suffered a terrible blow from recurrent droughts halving the expected production of 742,000 tons of the main staple, maize, this year. It leaves 1.5 million Zimbabweans (16% of the population) without enough food to stay healthy, according to the UN World Food Programme. To make matters worse, because of the ongoing El Niño, meteorologists are predicting the upcoming cropping season to be further marred by below normal seasonal rains in the semi-arid southern region of Zimbabwe (FEWS). The Southern Africa Development Community has announced that over 27 million people across the Southern African region will face hunger over the next six months.

Over the last two weeks, political leaders debated how to address global warming during the COP21 talks in Paris. Yet for years many scientists have been warning us about the increase in drought risks around the world. This could lead to more frequent food crises and social unrest if no appropriate adaptation policies are in place. Agrarian countries like Zimbabwe, where over three quarters of the population depend on farming, many of which are poor rain fed smallholdings, will suffer the most.

Though clear that we are facing this enormous and complex threat, policy-makers often say they lack a consistent picture of what climate change will cost and how it will impact in terms of food security and the future of the farming sector.

This is where the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) comes in. This international

programme funded by UK aid, in partnership with the US Department of Agriculture, aims to better characterize and quantify the impacts of climate variability and change on the agricultural sector and food security, at global as well as regional scales. AgMIP allows more realistic and intercomparable projections, linking climate, crop and economic models, which ultimately help farmers cope with climate variability and change.

Read more: http://www.trust.org/item/20151214144138-

670zj/?source=reTheWire

Letter to the Editor, Guardian, 15 December We congratulate the leaders of our world on agreeing to limit the rise in global temperatures to 2C or, hopefully, 1.5C – a clear signal to transform our global economy to decrease emissions. We in the agricultural/scientific sectors have a key role in meeting this transformation by finding sustainable solutions to feeding the ever growing population, particularly in the dry tropics of Asia and Africa.

For example, new drought-tolerant varieties of chickpea planted by Ethiopian farmers will lift 0.7 million people out of poverty and have a positive environmental impact.

In addition to climate change, these two continents are already facing the additional, but associated, problems of gender inequality, poverty, political instability etc. We need to redouble our efforts to leverage demand-driven innovation, partnerships and policies that ensure the poor can adapt to climate variability. The hard work starts now.

Dr David Bergvinson, Professor Chandra Madramootoo and Dr Nigel Poole.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/14/ climate-change-and-the-continual-demand-for-economic-growth ICRISAT HAPPENINGS 18 DECEMBER 2015 1706 3

INDIA Year in pictures 2015 highlights Last in the series of regional roundups

Dr David Bergvinson and Dr Peter Carberry address ICRISAT staff on assuming office as Director General and Deputy Director General - Research, respectively.

Dr Swaminathan at the NGGIBCI-V. Over 300 delegates from 30 countries worldwide deliberated on future collaborations and ways to integrate nextgeneration genomics into the future of crop improvement.

In a first of its kind, introgression lines using Marker Assisted Backcross Breeding (MABC) for foliar fungal disease resistance have been bred in groundnut. This was achieved in collaboration with Indian National Agricultural Research System partners.

(L to R) Mr N Chandrababu Naidu, Dr Bergvinson and Dr Suhas P Wani discuss the new collaboration between the Andhra Pradesh Government and ICRISAT. ICRISAT is to provide technical backstopping for Primary Sector Mission.

Dr Bergvinson along with participants of the Global Planning Meeting 2015, signing the ICRISAT mission.

Over 220 staff from headquarters and other locations took part in the event.

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The State Varietal Release Committee (SVRC) of Government of Odisha released its first improved pigeonpea cultivar, ICPH 3762.

Mr Rajesh Verma, Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Government of Odisha, discussed about initiating soil health tests and other natural resource management interventions in Odisha.

Telangana Agriculture Minister Mr Srinivas Reddy, exchanging MoU with Dr Bergvinson for implementation of ICT-based knowledge sharing platforms and other agricultural innovation initiatives. Also seen Mr Rama Rao, IT Minister (left).

Dr Bergvinson with Mr Chandrababu Naidu at the MoU signing with the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty, Government of Andhra Pradesh, India.

Dr Bergvinson in talks with Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh (centre) and Dr Ayyappan (left).

Mr Krishna Byre Gowda, Minister of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka addressing Bhoochetana workshop participants.

TL-III Focus Crops

Cowpea

TL-III Geographies

Common bean 1 2 3

Groundnut

Chickpea

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1. Mali 2. Burkina Faso 3. Ghana 4. Nigeria 5.Ethiopia 6. Uganda 7. Tanzania

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1

6 7

1. Uttar Pradesh

ICRISAT was awarded Lead Center status to manage and lead the implementation of the TL-III project for the period May 2015 – April 2019.

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Highlights of 73rd Governing Board Meeting

Mr Demba Camara, Second Counsellor, Embassy of Senegal in India and Mr El hadji Ibou Boye, Ambassador of Senegal in India, interacting with Dr Chandra Madramootoo, Board Chair, ICRISAT.

Delegates from various African embassies at the session.

Field and lab visits

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Finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.], which figured among the six small millets in ICRISAT’s research portfolio, has now been formally made a mandate crop. This decision was taken at the Governing Board meeting.

ICRISAT Board Members with a partner from Africa.

ICRISAT 43rd Annual Day

Celebrating research achievements, services and partnerships

Year 2015 has been a year of challenge and change. This year’s Annual Awards are all about celebrating people – our strength is the calibre of our people – the quality of our research and committed support staff. In 2016, I look forward to spending more time with the staff and finding ways to best support you. – Dr David Bergvinson, Director General, ICRISAT.

Promising Young Scientist

Dr Jana Kholova, RP-Dryland Cereals.

Resource Mobilization Awards: Major Grant

Outstanding Partnership Award – Asia: Joint Awardees

Dr Rajeev Varshney and Dr ES Monyo - RP-Grain Legumes: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – Tropical Legumes III - Improving livelihoods for smallholder farmers: Enhanced grain legume productivity and production in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Dr Shalander Kumar and Dr Anthony Whitbread – Institutionalizing Systems Approaches for Improving Food Security and Agricultural Livelihoods in Arid Western Rajasthan.

Dr Pooran M Gaur, Dr GV Ranga Rao and Dr Srinivasan Samineni – A breakthrough in chickpea production in Myanmar by enhancing adoption of short duration, high yielding cultivars.

Outstanding Partnership Award – ESA

Dr Moses Siambi and Dr Ganga Rao NVPR ¬– Enhanced area and production of pigeonpea through promotion of high yielding wilt resistant, farmer and market-preferred varieties in Mozambique.

Outstanding Partnership Award – WCA

Dr Hailemichael Desmae - USAID supported Groundnut Upscaling Project.

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Outstanding Scientific Article

RP-Resilient Dryland Systems: Amare Haileslassie, Peter Craufurd, Ramilan Thiagarajah, Shalander Kumar, Anthony Whitbread, Abhishek Rathor, Michael Blummel, Polly Ericsson, and Krishna Reddy Kakumanua (2015). Empirical evaluation of sustainability of divergent farms in the dryland farming systems of South Asia.

Ecological Indicators 60,710-723.

RP-Markets, Institutions and Policies: Kadiyala Dakshinamurthy, S. Nedumaran, Piara Singh, Chukka Srinivas, Mohammad A. Irshad, M.C.S. Bantilan. 2015. An integrated crop model and GIS decision support system for assisting agronomic decision making under climate change. Science of the Total Environment 521–522 (2015) 123–134.

ICRISAT Development Center: Karlberg L, Garg KK, Barron J, and Suhas Wani. 2015 Impacts of agricultural water interventions on farm income: An example from the Kothapally watershed, India.

Agricultural Systems 136, 30-38.

RP-Dryland Cereals: V Vadez, Jana Kholova, Gregoire Hummel, Uladzimir Zhokhavets, SK Gupta, Tom Hash 2015. LeasyScan: a novel concept combining 3D imaging and lysimetry for high-throughput phenotyping of traits controlling plant water budget. Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 66, No. 18 pp. 5581–5593, 2015.

Genebank: Shivali Sharma and Upadhyaya HD. 2015. Vernalization and photoperiod response in annual wild Cicer species and cultivated chickpea.

Crop Science 55. 01-08.

RP-Grain Legumes: P Janila, Manish K Pandey, Y Shasidhar, Murali T Variath, Manda Sriswathi, Pawan Khera, Surendra S Manohar, P Nagesh, Manish Vishwakarma, Gyan P Mishra, T Radhakrishnan, N Manivannan, KL Dobariya, RP Vasanthi, and Rajeev K Varshney.

2015. Molecular breeding for introgression of fatty acid desaturase mutant alleles (ahFAD2A and ahFAD2B) enhances oil quality in high and low oil containing peanut. Published in Plant Science (2015): 11 pgs.

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Resource Mobilization Awards: First Grant from a New Donor

Dr Suhas P Wani - ICRISAT Development Center (IDC): a) Asian Paints Limited – Improved livelihoods through Integrated Water Resources Management in community watershed in Medak b) Aquagri Processing Pvt. Limited – Techno-economic evaluation of response of different crops to application of sea weed extract Product “Aquasap” in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) countries.

Dr Stefania Grando and Dr CT Hash - RP-Dryland Cereals: a) Department of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Pavia, Italy and Institute of Agricultural Biology and Biotechnology, National Research Council, IBBA-CNR – Combining new phenotyping approaches and next generation sequencing to accelerate breeding in pearl millet, an orphan cereal from arid regions (NEWPEARL project).

Dr Rakesh Srivastava – RP - Dryland Cereals: Bayer BioScience Pvt. Ltd – Marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS) directed foliar blast resistance transfer in an elite pearl millet pollen parent.

Dr KK Sharma/Mr SM Karuppan Chetty - Agribusiness and Innovation Platform: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) – PRODUCE Fund – Promotion of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

First Grant from a New Donor: ESA Dr Kizito Mazvimavi - RP-Markets, Institutions and Policies Welthungerhilfe - Harare – Livelihoods and Food Security Program – Agricultural Production and Nutrition

First Grant from a New Donor: WCA Dr Hakeem Ajeigbe - RP-Resilient Dryland Systems West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP), Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria – Groundnut and Sorghum seeds multiplication Dr V Vadez - RP-Dryland Cereals: Kirkhouse Trust – Benchmarking of traits controlling the plant water budget in orphan legumes.

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Resource Mobilization Awards - Asia: First Grant as Principal Investigator

Dr Anthony Whitbread - RP-Resilient Dryland Systems: Department for International Development (DFID) – Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP Phase II). The Future of Food and Farming in South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa.

Dr Manish Roorkiwal - RP- Grain Legumes: Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India – Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Faculty Award.

Dr R Vijayabharathi - RP- Grain Legumes: Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India – Assessment of actinomycetes as tripartite agent: biocontrol of botrytis grey mold, host-plant resistance enhancer and growth promoter on chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.).

Dr Rachit K Saxena - RP- Grain Legumes Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India – Tracking breeding-induced genomic changes in Pigeonpea.

First Grant as Principal Investigator – WCA Dr Desmae Hailemichael - RP- Grain Legumes USAID – Seed Scaling: Groundnut in West Africa (Increasing groundnut productivity of smallholder farmers in Ghana, Mali, Niger) Dr Malick N Ba – RP- Grain Legumes / Dryland Cereals a) USAID supported Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sorghum and Millet, Kansas State University (Management Entity) – Biological control of the millet stem borer and the millet head miner in Niger and Senegal b) McKnight Foundation, USA – Sustainable large-scale biological control of the millet head worm in the Sahel

First Grant as Principal Investigator – ESA Samuel MC Njoroge – RP- Grain Legumes / Dryland Cereals a) PMIL thru North Carolina State University (NCSU) – Aflatoxin Management Interventions, Education and Analysis at various steps with the peanut value chain in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia b) Peanut and Mycotoxin Innovation Lab (PMIL), USAD, ARS, SAA, National Peanut Research Lab – Genetic diversity of Aflatoxigenic Aspergillus species in African countries

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Loyalty Awards 2015

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Annual Day Photos: PS Rao, ICRISAT

ICRISAT is a member of the CGIAR Consortium About ICRISAT: www.icrisat.org ICRISAT’s scientific information: EXPLOREit.icrisat.org DG’s Journal: dgblog.icrisat.org

ICRISAT appreciates the support of CGIAR donors to help overcome poverty, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the harshest dryland regions of the world. See http://10.3.1.36:8080/ icrisat-donors.htm for full list of donors.